Sandinista government says OAS should not recognize any government that results from a rupture in democratic institutionalism. Critics of the Sandinista government agree.

(posted June 25, 10:15 a.m.)- The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) this morning convoked a Special Session on Wednesday to make an appraisal of the situation in Paraguay following last week’s controversial removal of President Fernando Lugo.

Many countries in Latin America, including Nicaragua, have denounced as undemocratic last week’s rapid impeachment of the Paraguayan president.

President Daniel Ortega said the “coup” against Lugo is part of a conspiracy to “weaken the process of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples’ struggle.” Ortega said it’s part of the same conspiracy that was behind the alleged failed coup attempts against the Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Evo Morales in Bolivia, as well as the 2009 coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

OAS president Jose Miguel Insulza (courtesy OAS)

Ortega said his government will not recognize the new government of Paraguay, headed by former vice president Federico Franco.

“We cannot recognize [the new government], Nicaragua cannot recognize it, and I spoke about this yesterday with President Lugo and I expressed our solidarity and understanding of the situation that is really dramatic where there is a clear plan among the oligarchy, the rightwing forces and the armed forces,” Ortega said.

Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the OAS Denis Moncada said during last Friday’s Extraordinary Session of the OAS that the regional body should not recognize any government that results from an illegal process or a rupture in that country’s institutional democracy. (Ironically, that’s the exact same argument that Ortega’s critics use against the Nicaraguan government, after the Sandinista leader sidestepped the Constitution to get himself reelected last year).

Right now, however, the issue is Paraguay. OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said last Friday that Lugo’s removal has had a great impact on the governments of the region, which believe the impeachment occurred with a “lack of respect for due process and the right of legitimate defense.”

Though in strict terms Lugo’s removal was done according to Paraguayan law, Insulza said, “The letter of the law can never protect the violation of principles.”

“Nobody wants this to become a trend that tarnishes this democratic period in our region, to which it has been so difficult to arrive,” he added.

The debate on Paraguay’s future will continue on Wednesday at the OAS.

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Nicaraguan farmers are threatening to pull their kids from school if the government doesn’t halt plans to build a $50 billion Chinese canal through their communities. Anti-canal activists in several dozen farming communities along the canal route are circulating petitions asking parents to boycott the 2015 school year, which starts next Monday.

(posted June 8, 8:40 am)— The more Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega thinks about the recent coup d'état in Thailand, the more he doesn’t like it. On Saturday, the Ortega government released a rare press release condemning the Thai military coup and called for a return to a peaceful constitutional monarchy in the Southeast Asian country.

(posted Jan 26, 11:15 pm) —Nicaragua’s opposition Independent Liberal Party (PLI) today called on President Daniel Ortega to work towards finding a peaceful solution to growing political violence in the northern mountains of Jinotega after a weekend attack with a mysterious backpack bomb killed three alleged rearmed contras in the municipality of Pantasma.

Adding a wrinkle of confusion to a mystery shrouded in doubt, a spokesman for the Chinese canal in Nicaragua announced that the route has been redrawn to circumvent a farming community that has been energetically protesting the $50 billion project for months.

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Editorial
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As Sandinista faithful mobilize in the streets of Managua to pay homage to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the one-year anniversary of his death, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan analysts predict the international project he started won’t outlive its founder for much longer. President Daniel Ortega, who is traveling to Venezuela to pay official tribute to his former benefactor, honored Chávez as a revolutionary who “fought for the people, fought for America, fought for humanity, fought for peace and fought for justice.”
Prior to leaving for the airport today, Ortega said that now, “more than ever,” the countries belonging to the alliance created by Chávez will “continue to fight for peace, for justice, for liberty and for the sovereignty of our people.”
But just a year after the loss of Chávez’s charismatic leadership, and amid the ruin of Venezuela’s economy, the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA) —Chávez’s brainchild for regional integration — appears to be collapsing under the weight of its own ambition.